The emergence of Mark Karcher as one of the area's top players should come as no surprise. Since arriving at St. Frances as the Catholic League's most highly regarded freshman since Duane Ferrell, he has lived up to expectations.But if you ask his coach, Karcher also is exceeding expectations off the court."He has done a 150-degree turnaround since the ninth grade," said St. Frances coach William Wells. "He has made great academic strides and sees what he can do in the classroom. At this point, he wants to be somebody."

The best-kept secret in Baltimore is not going to be a secret much longer. Not the way they're playing basketball at St. Frances Academy.Two days ago, the school's boys team defeated Calvert Hall, 45-34, at UMBC to win the Catholic League tournament championship.On the same day, St. Frances beat Mount de Sales, 58-39, at Archbishop Spalding in the championship game of the girls Catholic League tournament.I don't know much about the girls league, but I do know a few things about the boys.I know that Calvert Hall, Loyola, Mount St. Joe and Cardinal Gibbons have basketball traditions.

COPPIN STATE (2-5) vs. LONG BEACH STATE (3-1)Tournament: Oldsmobile Spartan ClassicSite: Breslin Center, East Lansing, Mich.Time: 6Outlook: Coppin State finally pulled off its first major upset with a 69-66 victory over Louisiana State last Thursday. Sidney Goodman scored a game-high 26 points and was named Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Week. Goodman will have to contain Long Beach State point guard Raguj Salahuddin, who is averaging 6.25 assists. Long Beach State came off a 2 1/2 -week layoff to beat Montana, 79-69, on Dec. 21 and has been idle for the past week.

CLEMSON, S.C. -- Devin Gray has considered the cautionary tales of Reggie Lewis and Hank Gathers. He prefers a more reassuring development that involved Monty Williams.Gray, a Clemson University forward, wishes he weren't compared to any of those basketball players, but that's been the case since he had a heart attack six months ago.Casual basketball fans are aware of the heart-related deaths of Lewis and Gathers. Less well-known is Williams, who sat out two seasons at Notre Dame after being diagnosed with a heart condition.

The career of former St. Frances High School basketball star Devin Gray remains in doubt after the Clemson junior forward had an apparent heart attack Monday night on the Clemson, S.C., campus.The 6-foot-7 Gray, 21, from Baltimore, was awake and alert yesterday afternoon and was in serious but stable condition in the coronary care unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital near Clemson, according to a hospital spokesman."All indications are that he suffered a heart attack," said Dr. Stuart Clarkson, the team doctor.

COLLEGE PARK -- Devin Gray and Corey Wallace are trying to turn around a season that is becoming a disappointment.The Tigers entered 1992-93 thinking they had the talent to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years. Coach Cliff Ellis announced earlier this month that he would resign at the end of this season, however, and there were times in last night's 73-53 loss at Maryland that Clemson, which dropped into eighth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, appeared to be a team without direction.

CLEMSON, S.C. -- It's a little early to call any defeat fatal to a team's chances of an NCAA tournament bid, but Maryland's 82-72 loss here Tuesday night was a difficult one for the Terrapins.Clemson (10-5, 1-5) not only won its first Atlantic Coast Conference game this season and ended a 10-game ACC losing streak dating back to last season, but also broke a two-game winning streak by Maryland (10-6, 1-5)."It broke our momentum," said senior forward Evers Burns, who finished with 18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.

CLEMSON, S.C. -- Devin Gray started last night's game on the bench and in Clemson coach Cliff Ellis' doghouse. The Maryland basketball team only wished he had stayed there.Gray, who was benched for the second half of Sunday's 18-point loss at Wake Forest for disciplinary reasons, came off of it early against the Terrapins and lifted the Tigers to an 82-72 Atlantic Coast Conference victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.With a career-high 27 points, including 16 in the second half, the 6-foot-7, 230-pound sophomore from Baltimore helped Clemson (10-5, 1-5)

CLEMSON, S.C. -- Until Sunday's game against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., Devin Gray was having a pretty good sophomore season for Clemson. He was the team's leading scorer. He had tied a p,14l school record for steals in a game.But something happened to Gray in the first half at the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum. Maybe it was the frustration of four straight ACC losses. Maybe it was the 16-point deficit to the Demon Deacons. Or maybe it was that Gray wasn't getting the ball enough.

Playing on the road in the Atlantic Coast Conference can be more than a little intimidating to most freshmen. The boisterous crowds. The experienced, and often superior talent. The big-game tension.Devin Gray has encountered all that in his first season at Clemson, and will again tomorrow afternoon when the Tigers visit Cole Field House to play Maryland (12:30 p.m., Ch. 45). But Gray, who starred at St. Frances-Charles Hall in East Baltimore, doesn't seem to be intimidated at all.He has already faced an even bigger pressure: trying to qualify for Proposition 48. It took several attempts for Gray to get his SAT score above the required 700, but in the heat of a Baltimore classroom last spring, Gray finally passed.